The U.S. Department of Defense has reported the first successful live-fire tests of .50 caliber machine gun rounds that can maneuver in mid-flight to hit targets astride their aiming points.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) developed the U.S. military's first smart, self-guided bullets. DARPA calls the smart rounds EXACTO or "Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance."

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It said the maneuvering rounds are being developed for U.S. snipers. Only technological hurdles, all manageable, can prevent the smart rounds from being used on the conventional U.S. .50 caliber machine gun, the M2 Machine Gun.

DARPA released a short video showing the smart .50-caliber rounds changing direction in mid-flight to hit targets offset from the aiming point. The tests also saw the smart rounds strike targets over 6,500 feet away.

DARPA said EXACTO is a "laser riding round" that zeroes in on energy of a targeting laser. It noted that EXACTO's "specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that could impede successful hits."

DARPA said the objective of the EXACTO program is to "revolutionize rifle accuracy and range by developing the first ever guided small-caliber bullet.

"The EXACTO 50-caliber round and optical sighting technology expects to greatly extend the day and nighttime range over current state-of-the-art sniper systems. The system combines a maneuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course."

The DARPA video about EXACTO is at http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2014/07/10a.aspx 

Military analysts speculate that EXACTO smart rounds could have similarities to another program that also intended to develop smart rounds.

The rounds used in this other test had movable fins to guide the round in flight. It also tracked a laser; had a sensor and an on-board 8-bit computer-on-a-chip.